Quality of life among populations categorized with Engel coefficients

Objective To explore the survival status and quality of life (QoL) among different populations categorized with Engel coefficient.Methods Residents in communities of Shenyang,Fuxin,and Dandong municipality were selected with stratified random sampling and then assigned into different subgroups based on the calculation of Engel coefficient.All the participants were surveyed with The Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)-Chinese Version to evaluate and compare QoL of the population groups.Results For the population groups with the Engel coefficient of >0.59,0.50-0.59,0.40-0.49,0.30-0.39,and <0.30,the score of physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) were 48.00 and 48.45,49.12 and 49.21,49.78 and 50.57,51.30 and 50.74,and 52.15 and 51.41,respectively;both the scores of PCS and MCS were increased along with the decrease of Engel coefficient.Compared with the group with the Engel coefficient of greater than 0.59,the groups with the Engel coefficient of less than 0.50 showed significantly higher physiological and psychological SF-36 scores (both P<0.05);the physiological and psychological SF-36 score increased along with the decrease of Engel coefficient among all population groups of various ages.For the participants aged less than 66 years,those with the Engel coefficient of <0.59 had significantly higher physiological and psychological SF-36 scores than those with the Engel coefficient of ≥0.59.Conclusion The quality of life is different among the populations with different Engel coefficient and the population groups with higher Engel coefficient have a lower quality of life.